this is what happened: i had been running max 4, using both of the 2 midi controllers attached. then i launched max 5. it opened successfully, and was able to open a patch. then i closed max 4. then i started to launch Reason 4. before it successfully opened, i double clicked on a send object in the patch. max was frozen for a bit, so i assumed it would come back (my computer does that sort of thing regularly)... then reason popped up a message about trouble with midi drivers. ... and max never became unfrozen. then, i tried to kill the process. it didn't work. i've attempted to kill the process in a variety of ways, with no effect. i have never seen anything like it before, and i'll have a degree in computer science in a month. also, reason is similarly crashed, and impossible to kill. both processes cannot be debugged, because they are "crashed" they've been like that for 10 minutes now.

i'm not sure if this is a problem with max, or with reason, but i figure i should mention it. it's really quite amazing...

.. as though it's taunting me and refusing to die...